Actress Lim Ji-yeon made a shocking, candid confession about the career lull and "acting skills" controversy she faced after her glamorous debut, revealing how it nearly broke her confidence.
On the June 17 episode of the tvN variety show You Quiz on the Block, Lim Ji-yeon looked back on her acting journey. She made a powerful debut in 2014 with the film Obsessed and has since cemented herself as a trusted lead through projects like The Glory, The Tale of Lady Ok, and My Royal Nemesis. But the road was far from smooth.
Host Yoo Jae-suk asked, "I heard there was a time when you doubted your own acting." Lim admitted, "There were many," adding, "I often wondered, 'Am I just… an in-between, not quite one thing or the other?'"
"I debuted with a splash through Obsessed, but what came after was incredibly hard. Expectations skyrocketed, yet opportunities didn’t," she recalled. "It wasn’t easy to let people truly see who I am as an actor." There were stretches when no roles came for an entire year, and long, bleak periods where all she could do was wait for the next chance.
She also confessed that the early spotlight became a burden. "If a crown is placed on someone without the strength to bear it, it can feel even heavier than for those who’ve never worn it," Lim said. "Opportunities that came before I was fully ready sometimes felt like poison."
Lim didn’t dodge the acting controversy either. "When people said my acting was lacking, I felt like I was an actor hurting my projects," she shared. "It was a wound that was hard to carry at such a young age."
But she refused to waste that time. "I couldn’t just sit and wait," Lim explained. "I studied on my own, watching at least 30 works a month—sometimes close to 100." She said she broadened her perspective on performance by searching for what makes a good film and a good actor.
"In the end, actors can only express and act as much as they know," she reflected. "Looking back, those toughest times were when my acting grew the most."
Having weathered the doubt and instability after her debut, Lim Ji-yeon is now using that experience as a springboard to expand her own artistic universe.